


touchstone

by kaci3PO



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 07:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5196917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaci3PO/pseuds/kaci3PO
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You wouldn't have remembered me, would you? If I'd changed things, you probably wouldn't have gotten your powers. I— We'd have lost each other and you wouldn't have been able to fix it. Because it wasn't dreams and it wasn't just…<em>you</em>, it was you having become a meta. You wouldn't have remembered me."</p><p>Set between 2x05 and 2x06. Barry comes to the logical conclusion after finding out about Vibe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	touchstone

"Joe, I need to tell you something and I need you to not freak out."

The world-weary sigh is telling of just how much Barry has put his foster dad through in the last year, but the deep breath and, "Okay. I'm listening," is telling, too.

"Cisco's a metahuman." There's really no way to sugarcoat it, so Barry opts for blunt force to just power through the conversation. It'll be like ripping off a bandaid, but then Joe will know and Barry can go back to his own private freakout about the news.

Joe slowly lowers himself onto the couch, then rubs at his temples. "Okay," he says. "Alright. So what can he do? Is it dangerous?"

"No," Barry promises quickly. "Not as far as we know, anyway. He's been trying not to use them so we don't really know how much he can do. We only found out because Wells — Harry, I mean — he figured it out and made Cisco use them by making him touch Doctor Light's face mask. He...he sees things, sometimes. We decided to call it 'vibing.' So he gets these vibes and he can see things he couldn't possibly have seen, or remembers things, or—"

"Oh," Joe says. "Well...I guess that explains how he remembered Wells killing him in that other timeline. He must've been…" His mouth twists at little at the word. "'Vibing.'"

And now it's Barry's turn to be surprised, because somehow, he hadn't put the two together yet.

"Oh my God," Barry says. And then, "Nothing's wrong, but I have to go."

He takes off before Joe can reply, which is admittedly pretty terrible of him. He just dropped a bomb, the least he could do is stay and answer Joe's questions, but Barry's own freakout has just gone from "surprised" to "I need to talk to Cisco _now_ " and he needs answers himself.

He makes a lap of Star Labs, looking for Cisco in all his favorite spots, finally finding him in one of the secondary work rooms. Harry probably kicked him out of his own.

"Woah," Cisco says when Barry skids to a halt in front of him. His hair is fluttering in the breeze Barry blew in with and he stares at Barry like he thinks Barry's lost his mind. Maybe he has, come to that, because he's finally put two and two together and figured out the sprawling implications of four and he can barely breathe.

"Barry, what's wrong, man? New meta?"

"You," Barry says.

Cisco frowns. "Yeah, can we not talk about that? I'm still not sure I'm ready for—"

"You remembered the original timeline," Barry cuts in. "The one where you died. When I reset it, you still remembered. We thought they were just dreams, but you were vibing, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Cisco sighs. "I mean, I didn't know it. Not until— Wells told me, when we had him in the cell."

Barry waves a hand like that's going to wipe away the irrelevant information. "Right, but you were vibing. That's how you knew. You weren't just dreaming and it wasn't some unexplained phenomenon, you were _vibing_. Using your metahuman powers."

"Yes. Barry, what—"

"When you and I talked about how you didn't want me to save my mom because it would change the timeline and you would lose me, I told you that you would find me in the new timeline because you'd remember, like you'd remembered Wells killing you."

Cisco frowns and Barry can feel him getting it, but he can't help himself. He has to say the words, to put them out into the air between them so they become real and concrete.

"You wouldn't have remembered me, would you? If I'd changed things, you probably wouldn't have gotten your powers. I— We'd have lost each other and you wouldn't have been able to fix it. Because it wasn't dreams and it wasn't just… _you_ , it was you having become a meta. You wouldn't have remembered me."

"No," Cisco admits. "If I weren't a metahuman, I wouldn't have been able to. If you'd changed the timeline...unless metahumans got created some other way or something...if I was just _Cisco_ instead of _Vibe_ , then no. I wouldn't have."

"Oh my _God_ ," Barry says. He feels like his knees are going to give out.

"Barry, what's wrong? You're seriously freaking out here."

"That night— I never told you guys this when I got back. There was the singularity and then the funerals and then I wasn't talking to _anyone_... I went back. I was _going_ to save her. And then I— future me, I mean, the one who was fighting Wells when they came back through time and ended up in my living room — he shook his head. He didn't want me to save her. And I thought, 'Why wouldn't I want to save my mom? What could possibly change between this me and that one that would make me let my mother die?' and now I know. It was because he knew. He knew I'd lose you."

Cisco bites his lip. "Barry, I— I don't know what to say to that."

"You don't have to say anything," Barry says. He runs a hand over his face. "I just...now I know, I guess."

Cisco crosses the room in three strides and wraps Barry up in a hug, fingers clenched tight in the back of his shirt. Barry grips him back just as hard, holding on long past the normal duration of a hug until finally it gets to be too much and he has to let go.

"Thanks," Barry says. Then, "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Cisco says. "It's a big thing. It deserves a freak out. I've known for months and _I'm_ still not over it."

Barry nods, then bites his lip. "Hey, can I stay here awhile? Just...watch you work? I know it's weird but I just...don't want to be away from you right now."

"Of course," Cisco says.

He gives Barry's arm a squeeze and steps back, allowing Barry to take a seat at the desk so he can watch as Cisco tinkers at the workbench. He glances over his shoulder every few minutes, giving Barry a smile, gentle and reassuring, and with each passing grin Barry's heart unclenches, just a little.

**Author's Note:**

> One day I'll stop writing about that deleted scene but "one day" and "today" are very different things, so here, have the thing I wrote after Enter Zoom to cheer myself up.


End file.
